Even if it did, patients and caregivers are limited to 1.5 pounds at
time.

Shupe is back in Spokane after posting $7,500 bond.

His arrest underscores the dichotomy between medical marijuana patients
and police and prosecutors charged with enforcing drug laws.

Washington's medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 1998 and
adjusted later by the Legislature, doesn't specify how card-carrying
medical marijuana users can obtain fresh bud or how caretakers can
legally obtain seeds to grow their own. The law also doesn't address
how dispensaries such as Shupe's can obtain their supplies.

Spokane County prosecutors have said they believe dispensaries such as
Change, which Shupe owns with Christopher Stevens, violate the medical
marijuana laws because they provide marijuana to more than one person.

But how they'll address that remains to be seen.

Federal law prohibits marijuana use, even for medicinal purposes, but
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he won't target medical
marijuana users.

Locally, police and prosecutors work together to decide who to target
and how.

Darren McCrea, founder of the medical-marijuana advocacy group
SpoCannabis, was charged Aug. 4 in an investigation that began in
October 2007 and culminated with a police raid in June 2008 on his north
Spokane home, where detectives found more than 5 pounds of marijuana,
according to a probable cause affidavit.

McCrea faces charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent
to deliver, manufacture of a controlled substance and five counts of
distribution of a controlled substance.

McCrea's situation is similar to Shupe's. Court papers show
police heard McCrea was "selling marijuana to anyone with a medical
permit."

The shelves at Change were nearly empty Tuesday. Two jars of fresh
marijuana sat where Shupe said at least six usually do.

Shupe is hopeful he'll get his marijuana and money returned, but
Wasco County (Ore.) District Attorney Eric Nisley said the law isn't
in his favor.

"It's going to be a tough one for him," Nisley said.
"He's probably looking at prison if he's convicted."